East Cornwall Premier League football review, March 20

FIXTURES secretary Mike Murray was a relieved man after the East Cornwall League's Rowett Insurance Cup semi-final between Polperro and St Teath was one of only three matches to beat the weather last Saturday.

Murray said: "We are now all set to complete the semi-finals with the two deciding legs on Saturday, which leaves us on course for the traditional final date on Easter Sunday.

"There would have been a major problem if last Saturday's game had been called off, because we would not have been in a position to get the two legs completed before Easter.

"However, that is a problem we do not to worry about and we are all set for the cup final at St Blazey on Easter Sunday afternoon."

Premier division Torpoint are strong favourites to take one of the final places following their 7-0 home win over bottom of the table St Dominick in the first leg of their semi-final.

It means that Saturday's decider at Lovells Park looks to be little more than a formality.

The fact that St Teath and Polperro meet in the other semi means there is the guarantee of a first division side making it through to the big day and – and that tie remains evenly balanced following a 0-0 draw in the first leg at Polperro.

Meanwhile, the Rowett Insurance Supplementary Cup continues on Saturday with the third quarter-final seeing premier division leaders Plymouth Parkway visiting Morwenstow.

The winners of that game will be away to Bodmin in the semi-final with the other semi seeing Bude drawn at home to the winners of the Bere Alston v St Stephen quarter-final, which takes place on March 30.

Cup games mean another depleted league programme on Saturday after wet weather washed out the whole of last Saturday's premier fixtures.

However, Murray remains optimistic of keeping the league's season on course.

He says: "Under the constitution we have until the end of May to complete the fixtures. Even with all our postponements, we have most of the games re-arranged to be completed by May 18."

Even though there are only three premier matches on Saturday, those games involve five of the top six teams with four of those sides level on 36 points – seven adrift of Parkway.

Deduction

Second placed Bude take on fifth placed Tavistock while fourth placed Millbrook visit Saltash, who are in sixth place on 31 points following their recent three-point deduction for using an ineligible player.

Third placed Tavistock take on Lanreath, who are still battling to stave off the threat of relegation.

In the first division, second placed Kilkhampton make up another of their games in hand over promotion rivals St Teath and Polperro but face what could be a difficult visit to Plymstock.

Fourth placed Roche are at home to lowly St Stephens Borough while Callington – in fifth place but level on points with Kilkhampton – visit Camelford.

The two other fixtures see bottom of the table Nanpean host St Stephen while St Blazey Gate are at home to Edgcumbe.

Rowett Insurance League Cup semi-final first leg

Polperro 0, St Teath 0

IT will be all to play for when the two first division rivals meet in the deciding leg of the Rowett Insurance League Cup semi-final at the Playing Fields in St Teath on Saturday.

The teams were all square after the first leg, largely due to the excellent goalkeeping of St Teath's John Wood, a clear winner from both camps of the man of the match nomination.

Polperro could well have taken a three-goal lead into the interval but for the brilliance of Woods, who denied Dominic Richardson on at least three occasions while George Saada had a good effort well saved.

Karl Elliott went close for St Teath, but generally it was a quite afternoon for Mike Rickard in the home goal.

One disappointment for Polperro was having Richardson sent off, possibly harshly, apparently for language used to the referee.

MoM: John Wood (St Teath).

thisiscornwall.co.uk Division One

Kilkhampton 7, St Blazey Gate 1

KILKHAMPTON took full advantage of one of their matches in hand on their rivals with a convincing home win over a depleted St Blazey Gate to climb to second place in the table.

They are level on points with Polperro, Roche and Callington, but have games in hand over all three. Although Kilkhampton are still five points adrift of leaders St Teath, they still have three games in hand over the Saints.

Bradley Palmer led the way for Kilkhampton with a fine display in attack, scoring a hat-trick to bring his tally to four goals in the last two games.

Carlo Chandler added two for Kilkhampton with other goals coming from Josh Kerslake and a penalty by Garry Walters.

Joe Richards was on target for the visitors with a 25-yard screamer.

MoM: Bradley Palmer (Kilkhampton).

Edgcumbe 5, St Blazey 2

GOAL ace Mike Shannon continued his impressive return from injury with a hat-trick for Edgcumbe in their home win over St Blazey.

Shannon was playing only his third match for Edgcumbe since being out for over a year with a knee injury and brought his tally to five goals in the last two matches.

It was largely one-way traffic for Edgcumbe in the first half as they eased into a 4-0 interval lead with two goals each from Shannon and Sean Heward.

Shane Kibell pulled back a goal for St Blazey with a free-kick in the second half, but Shannon struck again to complete his treble and wrap up the home victory, although Kibell added a second for the visitors before the end.

MoM: Mike Shannon (Edgcumbe).